Jerusalem Restaurants - the complete guide

Azura Restaurant

Price Range

$20$35

About

Machane Yehuda, Jerusalem's ever-lively and bustling shuk (market), can be a pretty raw place at times, as one might expect of a Middle Eastern outdoor market. And one of the rawest places inside the shuk itself is the Iraqi Shuk, so-named for the country of origin of many of its merchants. It is a small aisle lined with dinged-up green wooden booths holding precariously balanced mountains of potatoes, tomatoes and other things brought forth from the earth, all presided over by merchants shouting in their most guttural Hebrew.

Needless to say, it's not the kind of place one might normally think to establish a restaurant – but tell that to Azura. Fitting right in with its surroundings, this tiny restaurant at the end of the Iraqi Shuk (look for the outdoor tables and painted sign) dishes up excellent hummus and other traditional Middle Eastern fare, including kubeh, shakshuka, and everything else an Israeli workingman could want. Extremely popular with the lunch crowd, don't be surprised if a line snakes back past the mountains of potatoes in the middle of the day.